22/10/03

He has created a puppet regime of MPs who have not the guts to tell him that what he has created in our once lovely country is wrong and his Cabinet, apart from one or two, are just a bunch of misfits and has-beens who do not have a clue.

Just look at the shambles after five years. Police, crime, education, NHS, post, transport, farming, teachers, asylum seekers, illegal immigrants etc. And not millions, but billions, of pounds wasted.

And now local council taxes are rising and councillors are getting massive payments for thinking up schemes to justify their existence.

It is getting like Big Brother is watching you: CCTV cameras chasing motorists and people; police, special police, council police, traffic wardens, local wardens, dog and litter wardens. Years ago we had police on the streets and a truant catcher for truants from schools and teachers had authority in the classroom and 90 per cent of lads and lasses knew the three Rs. - F Wealand, Darlington.

REGIONAL ECONOMY

I READ the report of the speeches made by Euro MP Stephen Hughes and Durham County Council leader Ken Manton at the Intertech 2003 conference (Echo, Oct 14) where they said that the days of shipbuilding were gone and we had to move away from metal bashing as a basis for our economic growth.

The workers building ships on the Tyne against very stiff competition from other European shipyards would not be pleased with the industrial philosophy elucidated by Mr Hughes.

Coun Manton stated: "We have to move away from metal bashing, technology and value added products must be at the heart of what we are trying to achieve."

He should realise that a prototype Rolls Royce limousine will be assembled jointly by using new technology and the skills of sheet metal workers (metal bashers) before going into full production.

As we look forward to building a prosperous North-East using all our disposable talents, our actions must not be based upon delusory thinking. Debating in the European Parliament and county hall was never meant to create a group of elitists who would decide the future of each individual person.

Using the natural individual aptitudes of all the people in a collective manner should result in a cohesive community developing a region which will attract attention from financial investors both here and abroad. - Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.

GROOMING

THE profession of groom is a very ancient, proud and honourable one - especially in the region covered by The Northern Echo.

This is why I find myself very upset that journalists, including yourselves (Echo Comment, Oct 16) are trying to twist the word to try to make it refer to people who set up under-age children for illegal sex.

How would you feel if we all began to call such despicable people editors?

It would be just as logical to write that Internet paedophiles were trying to edit children for sex. Why must you blacken other people's honest professions? - E Turnbull, Gosforth.

PENSIONS

I FEEL I must reply to your anonymous correspondent regarding Pension Credit (HAS, Oct 16).

About six weeks ago I received my forms and rang the freephone number as requested. I was asked to leave my number and they would contact me. The following day I was contacted by a young chap who asked me to get my form and he would take me through it. In less than 30 minutes it was finished.

A few days later, having spent less than one hour getting bank statements, rent and council tax payments and writing to my former employers, but without a birth certificate, I received my form fully completed and sent off the relevant forms.

I did not feel humiliated or ridiculed having to give the Pension Service the above information and I would like to congratulate the Pensions Service in our area for their attitude to me during a really hassle free claim which resulted in my first cheque for extra payment last week. - FR McCormack, Newton Aycliffe.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

I ADMIRE Pete Winstanley's passionate humanitarianism and much of what he says (HAS, Oct 16) would be fine if we lived in an ideal world.

Unfortunately, we don't. We live in an increasingly violent and anarchic society, large parts of which are no-go areas after dark to normal people.

A sizeable contribution to this mess is the presence among us of ever growing, if unknown, numbers of asylum seekers.

Remember two years ago our money to the tune of tens of millions of pounds going up in smoke when some of them burned down an asylum centre before disappearing without trace?

As regards the actual numbers, the Home Office estimate is 100,000 a year - in all probability a gross under-estimate.

You can't tolerate a situation like that, as this Government is doing, without putting the whole future of our society at risk. - T Kelly, Crook.

GRUMPINESS

THE column by Ruth Campbell (Echo, Oct 16) was very interesting, but the grumpiness in old people is not caused by mental thoughts but is basically due to the physical aspects of old age.

In between the two world wars an experiment was carried out in America to define just how old age affected people.

They got ten volunteers from university and 'aged' them. There were five teenage girls and five boys of the same age. They were normal youngsters full of life.

First a small plug was put in their ears to create a slight deafness, spectacles had to be worn to make their eyesight worse, their tongues coated to reduce their taste of food and some who agreed to it had injections to make joints a little painful.

Within a week those happy-go-lucky teenagers had become grumpy old people and complained just about everything, so it may be simply due to physical ageing of the body which causes grumpiness. - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

WATER SUPPLIES

I AM pleased to see the powers that be are having doubts about GM foods.

Of course, let's not forget about that most essential necessity - water. The Government is quietly shoving through Parliament the proposed fluoridation of our water supply. The chemical fluoride to be added is not the same as naturally occurring fluoride, being a poison nearly as strong as lead.

It may save a few kids' teeth (or not as the case may be) but if there's any doubt about its other dubious qualities, why do it? Use fluoride toothpaste. - FM Atkinson, Shincliffe.